Route

There is no single defined HRP track so one can make of it what one likes, depending on your preferences, capacity, needs and style. Your initial choice may later need revision to accommodate the weather. Flexibility and adaptability seem important here. This could make arranging meetings with other people less precise, but I didn't have to contend with this issue. Habitually I have an extra day's food up my sleeve "en cas d'urgence".

As this was the second time I was doing the HRP I had the opportunity both to revisit places I knew (or thought I did) and also to explore new variants for the sake of novelty. And as I was deliberately not following any guide book I was entirely indifferent to whether people prefer Joostens to Veron or not. Furthermore as I was going to be largely (in the end it turned out to be entirely) independent of staffed Refuges, I didn't need to plan my days with reference to them either. In other words I was entirely free to do what I liked on foot between the beach at Hendaye and the beach at Banyuls. I merely had to keep an eye on which day of the week it was from a resupply point of view as shops are usually closed on Sundays, and especially Sunday afternoons.

However thankfully I had enough sense not to rely to any degree on my memory of what I had done thirteen years earlier. Rather I made use of the collected knowledge of a few others whose writings I had read (and carried with me to re-read), and some of whose tracks I had loaded into my GPS. These became my virtual companions on the trail. From time to time they differed, and I missed some when they went elsewhere and rejoiced when we all met once again.

The major changes from my previous traverse, when I largely followed the George Veron book, were in the Basque country (this time I went further south via Les Aldudes), and after Benasque (this time I passed to the south instead of to the north). I also did not go out of my way to climb any extra peaks that didn't lie on the path. I'd just climbed a couple of more serious mountains in Colombia and that had sated my appetite for the time being. I'd also be operating in full autonomy mode so didn't really need to stretch it further.

So for about 98% of the route I was with one or more of my digital companions. About three times I used a bit of road (descending initially into Andorra towards El Serrat, descending to Arles-sur-Tech and when leaving Le Perthus) instead of thrashing around on apparently confusing trails.

I did not record a new trail however as I lacked the battery capacity for that, but the record I made of places I camped will for the most part make clear the route I took.

Due to a record amount on snow earlier in 2013 I decided (once again) to take the southern variant direct from Biados to Benasque, as I was lead to believe I would have needed crampons on the French sections - and in any case I was running low on food.